Fix Up Your Home - Five Inexpensive Things You Can Do Now

Evaluating Your Home's Needs

Our home has seen many changes over the past almost thirty years that we have lived in it. The function of our home is different now than it was thirty years ago, when we were starting out and building a family. The things we needed from our home have changed through the years as our lives have changed. Our family is grown, and now, in our retirement years (hopefully sooner than later), our home's purpose is evolving yet again. We have begun making some changes and fixing up our home.

Like many people, we have fallen prey to cut-backs and downsizing, and the recession has taken a huge bite out of our retirement savings. Costly home repairs and remodeling were simply not an option. We evaluated our home's condition and determined our current needs. With lots of research, the help of a couple of friends, lots of elbow grease, and some creative thinking, we were able to fix up our home with very little cost.

I will share what we have learned, and hopefully save you some unnecessary expense if you are looking to update and fix up your home. It can be done cheaply, and well, with a little preparation, planning, and a creative approach.

Before you begin, take the time to discuss your needs now and anticipate your future needs, individually and collectively, as a family. Take a good, hard look around, and evaluate the condition of your floors, walls, windows, stairs, fixtures, window treatments, and everything else. Write down your ideas, plans, and goals for your home. Start collecting ideas from magazines, paint swatches from home improvement stores, wallpaper books, fabric swatches. Keep these in a binder or binders for each room. Take measurements of floor space, windows, walls, and record those in your binder. Even if you do not plan to do everything right away, start collecting and building your plan in your binder. Having all this information handy and ready when you need it will save you much time when you get down to actually doing the work. Having this reference tool will also keep you motivated and working towards your goal, and it will keep your vision clear during the process. Take the binder with you when you shop for fixtures, paint, wallpaper, and accessories so that you will have your measurements and color references. This will insure that you purchase the correct amount and the right colors.

Five Cheap Fixes For Your Home

You may not be able to do everything you want all at once, but there are steps you can take now to fix up your home. These five "cheap fixes" won't cost a great deal, but will make a huge improvement in your home's appearance and functionality:

1. CLEAN AND REPAIR - This may seem obvious, but it's a good place to start. Simply give the house a good cleaning, from top to bottom. Get rid of clutter. Discard things you haven't used in several months. Wash ceilings, walls, woodwork, windows, and floors. Clean grout in your tiled floors, walls, and countertops. Steam clean carpeting, and launder throw rugs or replace them with new colors. Repair anything that is broken. Replace broken light fixtures, patch holes or cracks, fix or replace worn or broken window shades or blinds, patch or replace screens in windows, replace cracked or broken windows.

2. PAINT AND/OR WALLPAPER - Just painting your rooms will do more to transform and update your home than anything else you do. Paint can brighten up a room, or subdue, depending on the colors you choose. Don't forget ceiling fans. A coat of paint to match the room will instantly update a fan. Wallpaper is great for covering trouble areas, or for adding interest. It is easy to apply, and you could do an entire room in an afternoon. Home improvement stores have wallpaper on sale often, and will often discount discontinued patterns. You can paper a single wall, or paint halfway up the walls and paper the rest of the way up, dividing with a piece of molding. There are many good references on how color affects your room. Do some research and choose wisely. We painted our dark wood kitchen cupboards a cheery lime green, and the kitchen trim to match. Some perky matching floral wallpaper finished off the look. The transformation was immediate and the tiny kitchen instantly appeared larger. Furniture can also be made to look new with a coat or two of paint. Mismatched pieces picked up from garage sales or thrift shops can be unified with paint.

3. REPLACE "HARDWARE" AND "SOFTWARE" - Faucets- Replacing your kitchen and bathroom faucets is easy to do, and inexpensive. We changed our outdated kitchen faucet with a high, gooseneck faucet, and I love it. The whole room looks more modern, and the faucet is much handier than the old style. Knobs - Change the knobs on your cupboards, cabinets, and doors. After I painted the kitchen cupboards, the old brass handles seemed outdated. I replaced them with round white knobs, just the right look for my "new" cupboards. It's these seemingly small things that can change the feel of your home. Light fixtures - Replace outdated light fixtures. Add a ceiling fixture or ceiling fan. Get new lamps, or new lamp shades for tables. Vanity and toilet - Replace an outdated vanity, or spruce up your current one with a coat of paint and some new knobs. Replacing a toilet can instantly transform a bathroom. Don't forget the toilet seat. There are so many styles and colors to choose from. Area rugs - Replace area rugs with fresh new ones. Area rugs will add color to a room. They can "hide" scratched areas on floors or be used over existing carpeting. Window treatments - New shades, vertical blinds, or curtains will soften a room and add color and texture. Simply changing the style of window treatment will dramatically change a room. There are so many styles to choose from. I made my own curtains by simply hemming a long length of fabric and draping it over a rod. I added some beaded tie-backs for interest. Upholstery - New furniture was not in our budget, so I replaced our dining room chair seats with some perky fabric. Slipcovers are an economical way to make a tired couch and living room chairs look fresh and new, while adding color and design to the room.

This interesting toilet seat is the focal in this couple's home

4. ACCESSORIZE - Wall art - A
picture is worth a thousand words, the saying goes. It also is a key
element in designing a room. Photographs, or artistic pictures and wall
hangings add interest and color, and can change the feel of a room. Add
some sconces, and a shelf or two, to break up the shapes and sizes of
items on the walls. Mirrors reflect light and visually make a room look
brighter and larger. Table art - Well arranged groupings
or collections bring design and texture, and personalize a home.
Flowers bring fragrance and beauty into a home. A pot of daisies on a
windowsill, or an arrangement of mums on a table refresh and revive a
room. I have floral "chains" draped casually over my kitchen windows in
colors to match the wallpaper. They add just the right touch of charm.
Plants can be strategically placed to hide a structural defect. Plants
keep the air in the house fresh, and greenery is soothing and calming. Pillows -Pillows
freshen the look of your furniture, and bring color, design, and
texture. Vary the shapes and sizes for interest. There are many
patterns available to make your own pillows at a fraction of the cost
of expensive store-bought ones.

5. CHANGE A ROOM'S FUNCTION - Just because a bedroom was a bedroom when you bought the house, and has always been a bedroom, doesn't mean it has to stay
a bedroom. If you have three bedrooms and only use one, why not
re-purpose one of them. It can easily become a den, or a home office.
In our home, one of the small bedrooms became my craft room. At one
time our dining room became a family room for a couple of years, and
our sun porch became the dining room. When we tired of that
arrangement, we turned it back the way it was. Let your lifestyle
determine how you use your space. The charming sun porch off our living
room is windowed all around the three sides, and has a double wide
opening into our living room. We rarely used this room, so I made it
into my office. I love the sunny windows, and find it very conducive to
writing. We installed a rod and curtains to close it off from the
living room. I can close the curtains for privacy, or keep them open
when I want to be more accessible.

You Can Say You Did It Yourself

Fixing up your home can be painless and inexpensive, if you do it yourself and use some creative planning and ideas. These tips should give you a good start. I'm sure you will develop some of your own fix-it ideas along the way. It will be work, but the payoff will be a "new" home, which you will enjoy for years to come. You will have the satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself, and nobody will be the wiser when it comes to how little it cost.

I would love to hear some of your ideas. If you have some "tried and true" tips, please share them.

Comments

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janellelk

7 years ago

Great tips.. just get down to the basics and clean clean clean! Thanks!

rugsdynamic

7 years ago

These tips are great and I love the unique toilet seat you put up there.

Easy Fit Inc.

8 years agofrom Woodside, NY

Your hub is full of great ideas of refreshing one's living space without breaking the bank. Slipcovers are a great option when one wants to redecorate. Custom slipcovers can be very inexpensive and give a much more tailored look than a one-size-fits-most slipcover. By recovering furniture with tailor-made slipcovers, it will look like you've gone out and bought new furniture.

shanel

8 years agofrom Seattle

DoodleLyn - Nice job on this post. You have a ton of great, really doable, ideas. Thanks for sharing them with everyone!

Betty Bolden

8 years agofrom Bucyrus Ohio

these are wonderful thank you.

ftgfmom

8 years ago

thank you for all the tips. We have to do some repairs too.

AUTHOR

DoodleLyn

8 years agofrom Upstate New York, USA

Hi Morris - Thank you for your compliments. I do enjoy doing little home fixes, especially décor. It always makes you feel so good when your home is in order and things are working properly!

Morris Streak

8 years agofrom UK

It's good know you take your home repairs not only seriously, but with loving care. If only more people did that, not only to cut down on costs, but also to give a home the care and devotion it deserves. It is one's home after all. Good hub. I'm into home improvement myself, which is why I found your hub.

thanks for share great idea. I think we can save money just following your tips. you have great tips how to fix the house inexpensive. with global financial crisis, I should I support your brilliant idea.

Great Hub! I enjoyed it very much and found all of your tips very useful. Very inspiring and well written!

AUTHOR

DoodleLyn

9 years agofrom Upstate New York, USA

Christine - Thank you. I'm glad you stopped by.

Christine Tierney

9 years agofrom Fernley, Nevada

Great ideas and tips.

Thanks for sharing these with us.

AUTHOR

DoodleLyn

9 years agofrom Upstate New York, USA

Jill - Hope you can use some of my tips in your fixing up. Yeah, my hubby's cousin has that toilet seat, and when we went to his house for a party, I just had to get a picture of it. Little did I know I would some day actually use the picture!

jill of alltrades

9 years agofrom Philippines

Wow, thank you for all these practical tips. They are very useful especially since I have been thinking of doing some fixing up here at home.

That's a very interesting toilet seat.

AUTHOR

DoodleLyn

9 years agofrom Upstate New York, USA

Thanks so much, Ryan. This is my first time to answer a request. Thanks for the idea! Perfect timing for me. I'm still learning my way around here, but trying more things and picking up tips as I go. Thanks for your encouragement.

Julie-Ann - Thank you. I appreciate your stopping by my hub and taking the time to comment. I still feel like such a newbie, so it's good to get feedback.

Julie-Ann Amos

9 years agofrom Gloucestershire, UK

Very impressive!

Ryan Hupfer

9 years agofrom San Francisco, CA

Thanks for answering my request -- this is an awesome Hub! Keep up the great work. :)

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